2018’s first baboon victim has been killed.

2018’s first victim of Cape Town’s flawed protocol for “removing” problem baboons has been killed.

by Jenni Trethowan

Dodger was a young dispersing male from the Slangkop troop who first showed up in the Da Gama troop home range in October. Dispersing to new troops is vital to keep troop gene pools strong – even more so on the Peninsula where traditional migration routes on or off the Peninsula have long been cut off by urban sprawl.

His attempts to join the Da Gama troop and oust the current alpha were marked by some typical fights – in the wild he would have retreated away from the troop to recover and re-strategise before his next attempt, but in Cape Town, with ever-shrinking natural habitat, the only place he could retreat to was the urban edge of Capri. Under normal circumstances this process of joining a new troop can take many months, but our males are simply not given enough time to settle down.

At the beginning of December, he was trapped and we were told he would be tagged and collared and released again, but we subsequently learnt that the authorities had planned euthanise him – it was only because of the concern expressed publicly by many people that he was instead relocated to Tokai.

Of course he never stood a chance there, and it was only a matter of time before his luck ran out. Plucked from familiar territory and placed somewhere completely un-known, he was given less than a month to settle down with a new troop in the North. We have heard of males moved from pillar to post and given even less time to settle before being killed.

The protocol for dealing with these males urgently needs to change! This systematic removal of dispersing males will have disastrous consequences for the genetic health of our troops. Our repeated requests to see census figures, particularly male vs female and female vs immature ratios, are routinely ignored – these figures are vital to establish whether our troops are indeed as healthy as the authorities would like us to believe.

For many years Baboon Matters has been the lone voice calling for the ethical treatment of our precious baboons, but there is now a growing anger amongst residents who don’t like what is going on. The authorities believe the baboons must be kept away from humans at all costs, even if it means they must be killed – but we know that residents have more tolerance than the authorities give them credit for.

The protocol for removing raiding baboons is currently under review, and now is the time to make your voice heard! We ask you all to please join us in calling for change – please email Julia.Wood@capetown.gov.za and have your say!